The Other Side of New Zealand

Yes, New Zealand is a spectacularly beautiful country. But, there is another side of New Zealand, an edgy, wild risk taking, grab life by the horns, side. New Zealand is the birthplace of bungee jumping, where an elastic cord is tied to the limb of a person willing to dive off a precipice, jet boating, where a jet engine is attached to a small skiff and the driver proceeds to speed into ridiculously narrow and shallow waterways, And, we don’t think we can say we’ve really experienced New Zealand without doing something wild. We discuss that the original settlers, who traveled at great peril to the end of the earth. Their progeny have continued to take risks and live life to the fullest.

We walk on the beaches in the southeast, and almost step on a sea lion. We learn afterwards that you NEVER get between a sea lion and the ocean, as they feel very threatened and may attack. Luckily, we didn’t end up paying for our ignorance.

The Shotover Canyon winds through steep cliffs. We strap ourselves into the boat and hold on for dear life. The boat zooms at up to 80 kilometers/hour through the narrow gorge, barely missing the walls. The driver likes to get our adrenaline really flowing by aiming at the walls and veering off at the last possible millisecond. We do 360s within the confines of the canyon. We stumble off the boat with wild hair, wet clothing, and our hearts pumping!

The boat through Milford Sound and Doubtful sound are much more sedate by comparison. These two Sounds are actually fiords. A sound is a flooded river valley, whilst (yup, we are in the British Commonwealth country again and we can use the word again) a fiord is created by a glacier. These fiords are different from their cousins spelled with a “j” in Norway. Here, the cliffs are lined with trees and fern, and, there is so much rain in the region that there are waterfalls everywhere. We learn that it rains here an average of 8 meters a year. This kind of figure is meaningless to me (like the size of the national deficit), but, to put it in perspective, at least for those of you from cold climates, that would be the equivalent to 3,744 inches of snow. Our boat went close enough for us to the fiord walls to fill glasses with water from the falls. We are taken out into the Tasman Sea where the 10 foot waves and splashing surf make taking pictures impossible.

Along the west coast of the South Island are a series of glaciers. We hike up to the face of one, watching the centuries old ice break off with tremendous crashes. We watch a movie of attempted rescue of a climber who had fallen into a crevasse. Although the scenery is magnificent, the risks are too great for this group. Instead, we opt to take one of the numerous tramps.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? New Zealand has walking trails crisscrossing the country. These range from hour long paved walks, to 7 day grueling hikes over volcanoes. We have walked briefly on some of the longer walks (or tracks as they are called locally) but we decide we want to really experience one of the trails. While some of the trails require camping, others have huts or other accommodations. The track we decide to take has various lodges along the way, making it a much more attractive option for us. Ethan and Siena are standing at the start of the Queen Charlotte Track, a 4 day walk along the spine of a peninsula extending into the straits that separate the north and south islands. The views are amazing. It takes us 6 hours of hiking to reach our lodge for the night. We are not exactly roughing it; the lodge has a spa and a fabulous restaurant. After all, who wants to carry a four course meal with accompanying libations?

Continuing on the risk taking theme, we try some Kiwi specialties. There is a local soda we've never heard of before: L & P, a light cross between lemonade and ginger ale. It is good, but the ad campaign "World Famous in New Zealand" is fabulous. At breakfast, we are encouraged to try the national favorites, Marmite and Vegemite. Both are yeast extracts, a salty spread for toast. We are informed that you are either a fan of one or the other—never both (like being a Yankees and a Mets fan, I guess). I am the only Beattie to finish my piece. But, I don’t like it well enough to eat the others…We also try paua, a local mollusk. The word is pronounced like powa—like, for those of us from New York, Powa to the People. We have it fried in a fritter and it reminds us of conch, which we love. The paua shells are gorgeous, iridescent blue and green.

We continue to love New Zealand. And, we can say that with absolutely no risk!

Cheers,
The Beatties

New Zealand, East and South part of the South Island

We leave Singapore on a circuitous route. To save a bit over a thousand dollars, we fly from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (that’s due north), layover there for three hours, and then fly to Melbourne (south again), which is an eight-hour flight, spend 12 hours at an airport motel before finally flying into New Zealand. Well, we took El Cheapo airline for the first two legs (which is why the flights were so much less expensive). The seats didn’t recline, we couldn’t control our air vents, we had to buy everything, including water, and there was no in-flight entertainment. There were two small boys on the flight, who started running around after the first hour. Ethan and Siena decided these would be great kids to play with and spent the next 7 hours doing so. I am starting a new company. I figure if my kids had collected donations from the passengers seated near the boys, we would have made a killing!

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? They are in the largest city on the South Island of New Zealand. It was settled by the British in the 19th century and retains a very English feel to it. There is a river Avon on which you can go “punting”. There is a school that looks just like Oxford. And, there is a big Anglican church in the center of town, pictured behind the kids, which the city is named after. This is Christchurch.

Although it is the largest city here, it isn’t very big—just over 300,000 people. But, New Zealand, as we find out on our first week, isn’t overly populated. There are only about 4 million people. There are over 40 million sheep, though! We see sheep everywhere. The hillsides are quite literally polka dotted white. We drive passed gorgeous countryside with sheep. We see beautiful farmland, with sheep, long stretches of white sand beaches, with sheep in the foreground, tall snow capped mountains and rocky cliffs, the latter two thankfully with no sheep. We make a zigzag route down the lower island, stopping first at Mount Cook, the highest mountain on the continent. We rent a house on Lake Pukaki, in which the mountain is reflected perfectly. We gather we are quite lucky to see Mt Cook at all as isn’t seen too often; usually it is shrouded in clouds. We learned this from the local tourist information office that had a photograph of the view out their window taped to the window, with a caption reading, “This is what the view looks like on a nice day” implying that nice days were very rare. We were fortunate to have both days here clear. This is the view of the moon rising over the lake from our lodging.

After eating Asian food for 3 months, we are ready for some simple, home cooked meals. The motels here almost all have kitchens in them. We buy the local goods and cook them ourselves. Of course we buy lamb—having past at least a million sheep. The country is also renowned for its seafood. We try local salmon, the local green mussels and the just-in-season Bluff Oysters. All were wonderful, but the oysters were particularly noteworthy. Kim and I have had oysters in the US from the east coast, from New Orleans and Florida, from the Pacific Northwest. We’ve had oysters from Prince Edward Island, Canada and oysters from Scotland, all of which are supposed to be the best oysters in the world. When the waiter informed us that the local oysters are the best, we were understandably skeptical. Well, he was right! These large oysters are less slimy and chewy than oysters usually are (not that those characteristics are necessarily bad in an oyster…). With no grit and a wonderful briny taste, the oysters have us hooked! Paired with the local excellent champagne, Lindauer, they were perfection.

When we first landed here, I wasn’t sure we were going to have a Beattie Beer Index for our first installment. We arrived on Holy Thursday and the national blue laws were in effect. No alcohol could be sold on Friday, Sunday or Monday. And, it was a long drive into town on Saturday. Does anyone know why these are called “blue laws?” I mean, I know we were blue when we learned we couldn’t purchase beer or wine…

There is no single local type of beer. We try New Zealand lagers, pale ales and pilsners. Some are excellent, especially the Summit Ale and the Monteith Radler—a pilsner with a distinct lemon flavor. Unlike the German Radlers or Scottish Shandies, this isn’t diluted with lemonade or soda, but regular strength beer. Some are less noteworthy. The most advertised brand is Speight’s, which I thought was watery. The real disappointment, deep sigh, is the price of the beer, though. It costs around $7 NZ (about $4.20 US) for a pint. But, the bubbly is cheap! We bought a bottle at a restaurant for $22 NZ—that’s about $12.

So, we may raise a glass of sparkling wine instead of beer as we say
Kia Ora (health! In Maori, which isn’t really spoken much here, but is used frequently to be politically correct)
The Beatties

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? They are now at the southern most tip of continental Asia. Which is odd, as we are on an island. But, the island is connected to the mainland by a causeway, so I guess it qualifies as on the continent. This is a fast growing, modern city, that we learn handles one quarter of the containers shipped worldwide. We loved the phrase that this is a “fine” city, where you will be fined if you litter, spit, eat or drink in the wrong place, cross streets inappropriately, or, yes, even chew gum. This, of course, is Singapore.

Singapore likes to be the ultimate, whether it is with the biggest Ferris wheel in the world, busiest port, or, in a truly lovely statistic, the city with the most people stuck by lightning annually. There is supposed to be a 2 p.m. storm. It came early one day, but we were treated to quite a display each day we were here.

If you could take New York City, throw out all the poor people, wash everything until it sparkles, and place it in a terrarium near the equator, you would have Singapore. We wander and sweat our way through the streets and along the river, marveling at the modern skyscrapers, which surround the old colonial buildings. One of the classic buildings is the Raffles Hotel. This is one of those old world, classy establishments with a low key elegance, where they treat you the same if you are dripping with jewels or wearing shorts and t-shirts (thank goodness as we definitely fit the second category). We treat ourselves to a Singapore Sling at the bar where the drink was invented. It is a wonderful concoction with gin, cherry liqueur, pineapple juice, Cointreau and Benedictine. I’ve got the recipe for when we return. The food is dominated by the majority Chinese that live here. We have wonderful dim sum and enjoy eating at the hawkers’ centers, where the owners vie with each other for our business. We have sad, sad news regarding the Beattie Beer Index. The local beer is Tiger, which was brewed in Thailand, and the cost, a whopping $8 sgd—about $6 US. Luckily, we can finally drink the tap water again. This is the first country we’ve been able to do so since South Africa, and we relish freely rinsing our toothbrushes, and refilling our jugs.

We raise our expensive mugs to you, and say

Cheers! (They speak English here…)

The Beatties

Malaysia

We had originally planned on taking the train from Bangkok all the way down to Singapore, stopping at several places along the way. However, we read and heard of "unrest" near the southern border of Thailand. Now, the word "unrest" doesn't sound nearly as scary as the reality of terrorist attacks, kidnappings and killings. Same with "uprising". You just wouldn't think, to hear the words that things would be bad. I mean if you forget the current meanings, the sentence "Siena is a bit late 'uprising' this morning as she had some 'unrest' last night," makes perfect sense. But, I digress. Suffice it to say we skipped the whole region by flying over it at 30,000 feet, landing in Kuala Lumpur.

We were all very surprised by the capitol of Malaysia. We had pictured people in sarongs and Southeast Asian architecture. But, KL is very modern. We got the feeling everything had been erected in the last 5 years. But, we are still very much in the tropics. It is hot and humid, and there are open spaces with palm trees and grass interspersed with the skyscrapers. Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? They are in front of the largest, twin towers in the world. This would sound more macabre if these weren't the tallest before 9/11. We always like when there are all kinds of disclaimers to a statistic. You know, like when watching baseball, and hearing the batter has a .400 batting average on Tuesdays in July against pitchers whose names start with "J". Anyway, I've wandered again. These buildings are 452 meters tall, connected by a skybridge midway up. They were the tallest buildings of any kind in the world from 1996 to 2003, until the one in Taipei was erected. Currently, there's one in Dubai going up higher, but it isn't done yet. These are the Petronas Towers.

We spent two days in KL before traveling by bus down to Melaka (or Malacca). This small city has a completely different flavor to it. Malacca, a strategic seaport, was ruled by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British, occupied by the Japanese, before finally gaining independence. The city has lots of remnants of those former inhabitants, and has a weird combination of European and the tropics--like Puerto Rico in Southeast Asia. We meet a great family here, and enjoy an evening with the locals. Chris, center in red, a dance instructor, even tries to teach me some steps. Chan, far right, is like Mr. Malacca. We must have a dozen people greet him and come over to chat. We hear there is a bridge and a road named after him and are mighty impressed until he tells us he shares the name of a famous philanthropist of old.

The food in Malaysia is fabulous. Satay is the national dish, and Ethan tries it everywhere. We have one dinner wandering from streetstall to streetstall. The combination of the Portuguese spicy fish, with the local peanuts and coconuts is wonderful. Believe it or not, the "local" brew is Carlsberg, which is brewed here. The prices are higher here, almost $2 a bottle, and, it tastes just like Carlsberg.

Battam zup (which we had to have repeated several times when we ask how to say "cheers" in Malay. Say it over until you figure out what they were really saying...")

The Beatties

Southern Thailand

Well, we’ve been traveling for 9 months. Three quarters of our trip is over, and it is still wonderful. Virtually everyone we’ve met wants to know our favorite. There isn’t one favorite, but we can tell you our favorite for individual things.

Best food: Tie between Italy and France
Best Beaches: Thailand
Best Scenery: Norway
Best Hiking: Great Britain, Tanzania
Best Medium City: Venice
Best Overall City: Paris
Best Museum: The Hermitage (Musee d’Orsay is close second)
Best National Park: Plitvice, Croatia
Best Building: Taj Mahal
Friendliest People, in their own country: Myanmar, Great Britain
Friendliest Fellow Travelers: Holland, Australia and Germany
Best Wild Animals: Kruger, South Africa

Back to our current travels, if you look on a map, the Thai peninsula is really narrow, but it is a 5 hour bus ride across it. We stop for a couple of nights at a national park, renown for the jungle and animals living in it. While we hear there are elephants, tigers, cobras and pythons around, the only animal we fear are the leeches. Did you know that these disgusting bloodsuckers can penetrate through your clothing? The hiking was great, though, and we really enjoyed swimming in a rift between two cliffs. The park was empty enough that we felt comfortable skinny dipping, although other hikers joined us after we were re-dressed.

Where in the World are Ethan and Siena? They are in front of a group of mangrove trees, along the coast of Thailand. This region of the Andaman Coast was hit hard by the devastating tsunami of 2004, when thousands of people on the islands and along this coast were swept into the sea. The sheer cliffs that hem in much of this coast are beautiful, but caused many deaths, as the people could not flee the rising water. There was no notice, and residents tell of standing on the cliffs watching helplessly.

The area has been completely rebuilt. While the visibility is not nearly as good as on the east coast islands, the hiking and climbing here are much better. We stay on Railay Beach, a small isthmus of land, completely cut off from the rest of the mainland, by towering cliffs. We take longtail boats back and forth to the port. The karsts rising from the water are dramatic, and we spend days swimming around them and into the caves the ocean has formed. To see stalactites dripping off 300 foot cliffs, touching the ocean at high tide is awesome!

We hope we continue to enjoy our travels for the last 3 months, and look forward to hearing from YOU.

Chock Dee!
The Beatties

Koh Tao

We need a break from our travels. India took a lot out of us and we are fed up with people trying (and sometimes succeeding) in ripping us off. We’ve had enough of bargaining for food, lodging, water. We need a rest. And, we found a fabulous place to do just that.

We travel south, down the Thai peninsula on an overnight train. The train, like every other train we’ve taken here, is late. But, this time we are thrilled. The train was supposed to arrive at 4:50 am, but pulls in at 5:45—giving us almost a whole extra hour sleep! We take a bus to the pier and then a 3 hour ferry out to Koh Tao, Turtle Island. This small island in the Gulf of Thailand has beautiful boulders strewn picturesquely at the ends of crescent shaped beaches. There are fabulous coral heads encircling the island, and we explore them by snorkeling and scuba diving. Ethan and Siena are quite the novelty, as the youngest certified divers the instructors have ever met. We discover that none of our family quite fit into the usual demographic for the island. Everyone else is between 18 and 30, from all over the world, although almost no people from the US. Our dive boat has a British and a Canadian instructor, with one French man, an Israeli woman, three Germans and us. The diving is great. We’ve never seen so many anemones before, and the colors of the coral and the huge clams range from brilliant purple to a neon green. I’m afraid we don’t have an underwater housing for the camera, so you’ll just have to imagine.

As there are no weird animals for us to ride, we contrive to try some other conveyances. We rent a kayak one day and explore the nearby coves. We hear that the cove just to the east of where we are staying has some interesting snorkeling. The cove, nicknamed Shark Bay, lives up to its moniker. We see a dozen black tipped reef sharks, ranging from 1 to 2 meters in length. The water is only 1 to 2 meters and a bit murky, so the sharks appeared and disappeared in a rather eerie manner.

Taxi costs were prohibitive. When a round trip fare into the nearest town cost more than a night’s accommodation, we refused to use them. So, we rented motorbikes to explore the limited paved parts of Koh Tao. It takes us barely 15 minutes to go from one end to the other, although we toodled along very slowly. Unfortunately, I sprain my ankle hiking down to a view point/snorkel spot. At home, we advise Rest Ice Compression and Elevation (RICE). Here, where we’ve already had plenty of rice, we tried Rum Exercise by Snorkeling in the gulf of Thailand (REST). Sometimes the ice was on the ankle, sometimes the ice was with the rum. When I went to the pharmacy for an anti-inflammatory, the woman initially quoted me 120 Baht for the pills. I expressed surprise at the cost. She immediately dropped the price to 90 Baht. I hadn’t really been intending to haggle for my medicine, but I sure wasn’t going to argue and pay the 120. Suffice it to say, the recovery has been remarkably swift. I’m not a doctor, but I myself will be dosing with rum for all injuries from here on out.

We spent 4 days on Koh Tao. The cost for our bungalow, just meters off the beach, was less than $15/night. The kids had a more basic room, which was only $6. Thank goodness they gave us a $3/night /room discount for diving, or we might not have been able to afford it! We leave rested, and ready to resume our adventures.

Chock Dee!
The Beatties

Cambodia

For our next adventure, we bussed to Cambodia. We had heard the roads were terrible, but the main road had been partially repaved making the trip much shorter than all the scary estimates. You need to stay on main roads in Cambodia, as this country has the dubious distinction of having more landmines than any other country. We are told never to wander off well-trodden areas. Even if you are lucky enough to avoid any explosions during an amble, Cambodia is still blessed with numerous venomous snakes, and the walk could kill you anyway. We listen to a number of bands comprised of landmine victims, which reminds us that although the mines were left years ago, their killing continues today. Like this country hasn't had enough troubles. We learn of the 1 - 2 million people killed by the Khmer Rouge, who the people had originally welcomed as their saviors. This after invasions by Vietnam and carpet bombings by us.

Where in the world are Ethan and Siena? This temple complex is a short tuk tuk ride north of Siem Reap. The Khmer dynasty which built it lasted from 800 A.D to 1400 AD, which is a long time, as empires go. We are informed that the city here was the most advanced city of its day. Of course, this corresponds to a rather dark period for Western Europe, so not much competition from that quarter. This UNESCO World Heritage Site is one of the most awesome places we have visited. We hear it is the largest religious structure in the world. There are over 100 different temples in the area. It is commonly known by the most famous of the temples: Angkor Wat. when the temples were constructed.

The temple of Ta Phrom was our first stop, and my favorite. Have you ever seen Tomb Raiders? I guess this is where some of the scenes were filmed. It has been left largely as it was when re-discovered in the early 20th century. Here, we were able to explore everywhere, crawling into small passages, climbing to the top of steep towers. Here, towering trees threaten to topple the ancient temples. It looks like some sort of demonic giant sea creature engulfing the walls with their huge tentacles. There are lots of tall towers, and we tire ourselves in the hot humid weather, scrambling to the top with incredibly steep stairs. But, luckily, refreshment is close by...

Khmer food (the language and the food are referred to as “Khmer” not Cambodian) is similar to Thai food (as they say in this part of the world “same-same…but different). They use more spices, lots of coconut milk and less chilies. It is a bit more oily and blander, but still has a really fresh taste to it. We tried a Khmer Cake, which was like an heavy crepe, filled with chicken and shredded vegetables and topped with a sweet peanut sauce. Fabulous! The beer is very good, too. It is a bit confusing, as the two most popular lagers here are Angkor and Anchor. You try specifying which one you want after downing a couple! The town of Siem Reap has a party town atmosphere to it—like a Ft Myers Beach mixed with the French Quarter of New Orleans (before Katrina). Which means cheap beer was to be had everywhere. We had two for one and 50 cent drafts at several venues. We were also fortunate to see a traditional Khmer song and dance show. I think it must be hard wearing a replica of Angkor Wat on your head whilst dancing. As for the singing, I kept looking for the cat, which sounded like it was in horrible pain. No, the arts here are probably not my favorite (other, of course, than the culinary arts).

We rented bikes for a day. The back roads are a bit rough, and we had to return two bikes with flats, but had a marvelous experience riding on a dirt road, alongside the river. We attracted lots of school children practicing their English and felt we were miles and years away from the tourist trail. The houses are built on stilts both to protect themselves from floods—this entire area is less than 100 feet above sea level-- as well as to prevent the snakes from getting in.

Next, we are heading down the Thai peninsula to try out some beaches

Lerk Guy Oh! (cheers, in Khmer)

The Beatties